The present invention relates to a truck mounted attenuator having an improved mount and a method for the use thereof.
Truck mounted attenuators are widely used to decelerate impacting vehicles while limiting deceleration for occupants of the vehicles to safe levels. Such attenuators are positioned on shadow vehicles such as heavy trucks that are parked in front of work zones. The truck protects the work zone against intrusion from a vehicle that has left the roadway, and the highway crash cushion protects the impacting vehicle and the shadow truck during a collision.
Often, truck mounted attenuators are mounted to the truck frame, or understructure, which is not pivotable. Accordingly, the truck mounted attenuator ordinarily must be lifted to the desired height to enable it to be fastened to the understructure. For example, June U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,792, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses one highway crash cushion that is mounted to a truck via a support frame that includes articulated arms. An energy absorbing element is disposed in the support frame, which is designed to collapse and to decelerate an impacting vehicle in a controlled manner.
In other systems, shown for example in Leonhardt U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,637, also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the truck mounted attenuator is mounted to a pivotable component of the truck, and in particular, to the tailgate of the truck bed. In this system, the truck bed can be tilted rearwardly such that the tailgate can be engaged with the attenuator mounting structure. The bed is then tilted back to the horizontal position so as to lift the attenuator off of the ground. In this system, however, the weight of the attenuator is supported at least in part by the tailgate, which may have limited structural capabilities.